Amos 1:3-2:6
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
II. Oracles Against the Nations[a]
Aram
3 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Damascus, and now four—[b]
I will not take it back—
Because they threshed Gilead
with sledges of iron,
4 I will send fire upon the house of Hazael,
and it will devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.[c](A)
5 I will break the barred gate of Damascus;
From the Valley of Aven[d] I will cut off the one enthroned,
And the sceptered ruler from Beth-eden;
the people of Aram shall be exiled to Kir,(B) says the Lord.
Philistia
6 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Gaza, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because they exiled an entire population,
handing them over to Edom,
7 I will send fire upon the wall of Gaza,
and it will devour its strongholds;
8 From Ashdod I will cut off the one enthroned
and the sceptered ruler from Ashkelon;
I will turn my hand against Ekron,
and the last of the Philistines shall perish,
says the Lord God.
Tyre
9 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Tyre, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because they handed over an entire population to Edom,
and did not remember their covenant of brotherhood,[e]
10 I will send fire upon the wall of Tyre,
and it will devour its strongholds.
Edom
11 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Edom, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because he pursued his brother[f] with the sword,
suppressing all pity,
Persisting in his anger,
his wrath raging without end,
12 I will send fire upon Teman,
and it will devour the strongholds of Bozrah.[g]
Ammon
13 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of the Ammonites, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because they ripped open pregnant women in Gilead,(C)
in order to extend their territory,
14 I will kindle a fire upon the wall of Rabbah,[h]
and it will devour its strongholds
Amid war cries on the day of battle,
amid stormwind on the day of tempest.
15 Their king shall go into exile,
he and his princes with him, says the Lord.
Chapter 2
Moab
1 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Moab, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because he burned to ashes[i]
the bones of Edom’s king,
2 I will send fire upon Moab,
and it will devour the strongholds of Kerioth;
Moab shall meet death amid uproar,
battle cries and blasts of the ram’s horn.
3 I will cut off the ruler from its midst,
and all the princes I will slay with him, says the Lord.
Judah
4 [j]Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Judah, and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because they spurned the instruction of the Lord,(D)
and did not keep his statutes;
Because the lies[k] which their ancestors followed
have led them astray,
5 I will send fire upon Judah,
and it will devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.
Israel
6 Thus says the Lord:
For three crimes of Israel,[l] and now four—
I will not take it back—
Because they hand over the just for silver,
and the poor for a pair of sandals;(E)
Footnotes
- 1:3–2:16 All the nations mentioned here may have been part of the ideal empire of David-Solomon (cf. 1 Kgs 5:1; 2 Kgs 14:25). Certain standards of conduct were expected not only in their relations with Israel but also with one another.
- 1:3 For three crimes…and now four: this formula (n, n + 1) is frequent in poetry (e.g., Prv 6:16–19; 30:18–19). The progression “three” followed by “four” here suggests a climax. The fourth crime is one too many and exhausts the Lord’s forbearance.
- 1:4 Hazael…Ben-hadad: kings of the Arameans whose capital was Damascus (v. 5); they fought against Israel (2 Kgs 13:3) and had long occupied the region of Gilead (v. 3) in Transjordan.
- 1:5 Valley of Aven: lit., “valley of wickedness,” perhaps a distortion of a place name in Aramean territory, identity unknown. Beth-eden: an Aramean city-state on the Euphrates, about two hundred miles northeast of Damascus, called Bit-adini in Assyro-Babylonian texts. Kir: cf. 9:7; probably to be identified with the city of Emar on the Euphrates, a major Aramean center in the Late Bronze Age. One text from this site calls the king of Emar “the king of the people of the land of Kir.”
- 1:9 Did not remember their covenant of brotherhood: standard diplomatic language of this period, meaning “violated the treaty.” The violation may not have been against Israel itself but against a fellow “subject” nation of the ideal Davidic-Solomonic empire (cf. 2:1).
- 1:11 Pursued his brother: “brother” here may denote a fellow vassal or subject of Israel.
- 1:12 Teman…Bozrah: two of the chief cities of Edom; cf. Jer 49:20.
- 1:14 Rabbah: now called Amman, the modern capital of Jordan.
- 2:1 He burned to ashes: to the peoples of the Near East, burning the bones of the dead was a particularly heinous crime, as it was believed to cause the spirits of these dead to wander without any hope of interment in their graves, where they could rest in peace.
- 2:4–8, 12 Unlike the crimes of the nations detailed in this section, which are wrongs against other nations, those of Judah and Israel named here are violations of the Lord’s demands.
- 2:4 The lies: false gods worshiped by the Judahites.
- 2:6 Israel: Amos’s audience would applaud his condemnation of foreign kingdoms in the foregoing seven oracles, especially of Judah. But now he adds an eighth, unexpected oracle—against Israel itself. This is the real “punch line” of this whole section, to which the preceding oracles serve mainly as introduction.
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